Anyone who has ever gone fishing has a story of “the one that got away.” This Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) wanted to make sure that it did not have such a story to tell and dragged its prey onto dry land. Then the snake faced the challenge of figuring out how to swallow the large fish. The snake twisted and turned and contorted its body and head as it gradually ingested the fish. When the fish was part way down its throat, the snake appeared to push up against a log for additional leverage.
I captured a sequence of shots that speak for themselves, so I will not bother to explain each of them. Like me, you will probably feel a kind of macabre mixture of horror and fascination as you view them.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’ve heard that those snakes will eat just about anything that moves. Including lots of sand, apparently.
I can’t decide if the sand is the Original Recipe or Extra Crispy. I guess the snake decided that it had to accept a little extra sand rather than risk having the fish escape. I have seen herons dip fish in the water sometimes just before swallowing them.
Either way, that’s a great series of shots. There’s a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time.
What a fantastic set of shots. It’s so fascinating to see the snake in action like this. I’m going to show my kids in the morning.
This is the kind of thing that boys of all ages will like–I hope that doesn’t sound too sexist. It’s a guy thing. 🙂
Great capture!
Great series, Mike! Just amazing that a snake could catch a fish that big and that no bird came along to steal it!
Thanks, Ellen. Fortunately for the snake there were not many birds nearby, though I did see some cormorants in the distance.
When I saw this post yesterday, Benjamin was no longer here. I was unsure about sharing this with him, worried that it might be too graphic for him. Then this afternoon, I considered that he understands that all must eat to survive. So, I decided to show him and let him decide if he wanted to see the photos. He somberly looked at each one and asked me to “make them big”. He examined each in turn, photo by photo, not saying a word. When we got to #7, he said : “that is so disgusting!” I said that it is pretty yucky seeing the snake eat a whole fish. Whereupon, Benjamin looked at me and said : “Gem, the snake is eating the sand, that’s disgusting!” Silly me! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
These pictures tell a story.
Thanks, Robert. In most cases, I will use only a single photo or two in a posting, but it is really cool when I can capture a whole sequence of shots that tell a story. Here is a link to another snake/fish story you may like (https://michaelqpowell.com/2017/07/20/snake-catches-catfish/)